Tom Brady got candid about his personal life on Tuesday ... openly admitting to a room full of strangers that he has not been the world's greatest father to his three kids.
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00:00I was at one of P. Diddy's freak-offs.
00:03Freak-offs.
00:04You saw celebrities there that you recognized.
00:07Mm-hmm.
00:08They were a rapper that we all know.
00:11Straight-up porn directed by Diddy.
00:13I'm just grateful to have made it out.
00:15Tom Brady and his parenting.
00:17We actually, since Tom is retired, really retired this time,
00:21we've seen him spending a lot of time with his kids when he's not calling games for Fox.
00:27But his parenting skills came up while he was at a forum for Fortune magazine.
00:34And someone was asking him, and maybe the full context here is,
00:38how do you, when you have so much, how do you motivate your kids?
00:43How do you motivate your kids to actually get out and do things in the world?
00:48And this is what Tom had to say, a bit of an admission about his failings as a parent.
00:52This is very introspective.
00:54All the parents in the room know that being a parent is probably the hardest job all of us have.
00:58And we screw up a lot, and I've screwed up a lot as a parent.
01:01So I don't want to seem like I'm some expert in parenting, because I'm certainly not that.
01:05Whatever our kids choose, as we know, to do whatever they want to do in life, we've got to support.
01:10And again, the blessing my parents gave me was when I was that long shot as a kid
01:15who was a backup quarterback on a freshman team, they never said, man, don't do that.
01:20That's probably my parenting style.
01:22I have a son who's 6'5", and he wants to play basketball.
01:26He's taller than you.
01:27Yeah, he's a little taller than me.
01:28And he goes to school here in New York.
01:29He's 17.
01:30And unfortunately, he jumps as high as I do.
01:32But I tell him, dude, you're going to be a stud.
01:37I just want to say something, that I just listened to him there.
01:41Right.
01:42In his element, I mean, because people have been criticizing him.
01:45Criticizing the way he calls games.
01:46But he is so personable and natural in the way he's talking there.
01:51Right.
01:52If that could translate to what he does.
01:54I'm sure it will.
01:55It will.
01:56That was the point.
01:57He's going to get comfortable being in the booth.
01:58That was really something, just listening to Tom Brady kind of unleashed there.
02:01That was refreshing.
02:03And I don't know.
02:05I'm wondering how you feel about what he said, though, what he says to his son,
02:10who he's admitting doesn't have the greatest physical skill on the basketball court,
02:16but that he's still encouraging him.
02:18I have a strong feeling about this.
02:20And it has to do with nepo babies.
02:22This kid is a nepo baby.
02:24Right.
02:25And a lot of the criticism is, oh, these kids get handed things,
02:29and sometimes they lack ambition.
02:32Tom is doing the opposite of somebody lacking ambition.
02:35He's saying to the kid, follow your dream.
02:37Yes, the kid has a safety net, because Tom is rich, and this kid's never going to suffer.
02:42But at least this kid is aspiring to something.
02:46But don't you think that, like, as a dad,
02:48if you know your kid is, like, not talented in this particular thing,
02:51you should probably be like, maybe we shouldn't.
02:53Well, then maybe that's exactly what Tom is saying about Jack,
02:56that even though he can't jump that high, I'm going to keep encouraging him.
03:00And give him private coaching and try to, like, work out
03:03and work on your box jumps and do all this stuff.
03:05Because if you're 6'5", you should be able to play basketball, right?
03:08Well, yeah.
03:09And, look, maybe he will make the NBA, maybe he won't.
03:12I'm sorry for doing this, but I'm going to go back to the book I read on Aaron Rodgers.
03:17Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord.
03:19Oh, my gosh. Tell me about Aaron's parents.
03:22Please tell me how he was parented. I want to know.
03:25Here's the point I'm making.
03:27By the way, they grew up in the same area.
03:30They grew up in the Chico area.
03:32And when he was in junior high and high school,
03:35he was a very improbable quarterback.
03:38And he was small.
03:39And it would have been real easy for his parents to say,
03:42don't go for it.
03:43But they did.
03:44And it didn't seem obvious, but it became obvious over the years.
03:47So there.
03:48My name is Jordan Simone. I am from New Jersey.
03:51And I think what Tom Brady is doing, he's learning as he goes,
03:54but it's really commendable because a lot of parents,
03:56they'll make the mistake of trying to live through their kids
03:59and just tell them, you know, this is the way I want you to live,
04:02for a safety net.
04:03So it's amazing that he allows them to be whatever they want to be.
04:07And if they fail at it, they can try something else.
04:09But nepotism can either make or break a child.
04:12Either they can feel the pressure of being Tom Brady's son and fail
04:16or not think that they're going to be good enough.
04:18So it's amazing that it starts with Tom Brady.
04:21They have a great support system.
04:22So anything that they decide to do,
04:24I think they'll be great with him supporting them.
04:26Yeah, absolutely.
04:27Are you worried about the next book I'm going to read?
04:32No, because I know I'll hear plenty about it.
04:34I never have to read it.
04:37I never have to.